The Euro zone is in trouble. Hungary pulled the sale of their public debt in three-year bonds. Could not afford the yields over nine percent. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Hungary’s bonds to junk status.
‘Too big to fail’ is one thing. Try this, ‘Too big to save.’
The teachable moment here is, unless we turn this ship around, you’re looking at our future by looking at the economic situation in Europe today. Good too for the Brits continued refusal to adopt the ‘solution’ the European Union has in mind. It’s best not to board a ship while it is sinking. Besides, they have their own problems.
With the economy still in recession, and the President still touting his American Jobs Act, Americans are becoming more skeptical about what all the stimulus spending has done for them. And the news about questionable stimulus spending and special deals is beginning to bubble up to the surface. Some new, some old.
Old news that is coming around again is the Fisker Automotive (now Tesla Motors) luxury electric sports car that Vice President Al Gore invested in. That company got a half billion dollars for so-called green jobs. It is an electric car. It is a luxury car with a 50 mile range in total electric mode. Big investment for no market. But it did create jobs, in Britain and Finland.
The Fisker Karma sedan is priced at $87,400, with buyers eligible for a $7,500 credit on their Federal income tax returns.
Want one? Call them up and put down your $25,000 deposit. They’ll let you know when it is ready. Sell price? $87,400 to over $109,000.
So we subsidize a car company whose target market is “millionaires and billionaires,” then we give them $7,500 more of our tax dollars to incentivize them to buy it. All that from the guy that calls himself a ‘warrior for the middle class.’
Then there is the Solyndra scandal (Solar-Gate?) that wasted another half billion taxpayer dollars. That solar panel company declared bankruptcy not long after receiving your half billion dollars. Another big investment in an industry where there is no market. Officers of that company are big-time campaign fundraising bundlers for President Obama. Now those green jobs went directly to China. And Solyndra’s execs are pleading the 5th in Congressional hearings about it.
Are you seeing a pattern here of connected democrats and Big Labor being on the receiving end of millions and billions of your (and your grandkid’s) tax dollars? All in the name of stimulus and green jobs.
Check out this new TV ad from Ford. Their version of the man on the street press conference. The premise is that the subjects are real Ford owners using their own un-rehearsed response to a question from the ‘press corps.’
‘Chris’s’ response is golden. Took the words right out of my F150-owning mouth. Obviously Ford has the marketing sense to use this in their ad campaign because first of all, it is a popular sentiment, and, it is true. True about Ford. And true about the government’s handling of their competitors, Chrysler, now owned by Fiat, and GM, aka BM (Barack Motors). More jobs for Italy? That’s change you can step in.
This ad reminds me of the ‘Joe the plumber’ moment that President Obama had when his handlers let him talk to un-screened Americans for the first time. Now, it’s ‘Chris the Real Ford Owner.’ And Obama presses on down his yellow brick road.
Kudos to Ford Motor Company. It was to Chrysler and GM’s disadvantage for not standing up to the president. For not supporting their shareholders. For not supporting freedom, liberty, and free-market capitalism. Instead, they let the government roll them.
UPDATE 9/29/2011: Since the above ad, along with all their other ads are now no longer available online, below is a transcript of what it said. Ford’s explanation is that the ads run their cycles and that’s it. Their marketing people apparently don’t want to become a political news topic.
I wasn’t going to buy any other car, that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufactuerer that’s standing on their own, win, lose or draw, that’s what America’s about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you failed that you gotta pick yourself up and go back to work. Ah, Ford, is that company for me. Ford (Drive One)
I guess we now have the proof of what conservatives have been saying since forever: Looting is a result of liberal welfare policies. And Britain is in the end stages of the welfare state. Congratulations, Britain! You’ve barbarized your citizenry, without regard to race, gender or physical handicap! (more of Ann Coulter)
Now notice what’s going on here: Many of these banks bought these things when they were severely distressed, thereby paying a discounted price. Now they’re going to “exchange” at face, effectively stealingthe difference.
Actually, it is considered censorship here too, although the political Left will disagree. Freedom, especially freedom of the press and freedom of speech has been diminished in Hungary.
Hungary’s recently elected right-wing government has introduced a law demanding — under threat of fines and even shut-down — that news sources be “fair and balanced,” to borrow a phrase from a US news network.
But it doesn’t stop there.
[T]the agency created to determine whether news outlets are in compliance is stacked with political allies of the prime minister and would essentially have the freedom to punish news outlets as it sees fit.
The EU gets it and does not approve. Brings into question the notion that Hungary is not representative of the EU.
The law has raised concerns among Hungary’s European Union partner countries, particularly given that the country will assume the EU’s rotating presidency on January 1. Germany, in particular, has questioned whether Hungary can now be considered a legitimate representative of European values.
Media included in the law is TV, daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and internet sites. The whole nine yards. What is particularly amazing is that it wasn’t that long ago that Hungary was in the communist bloc where there was no freedom of the press. What are they thinking?
Providing zero analysis, not only is this story nothing more than a press release from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, but it is apparent that the Associated Press has no memory of its own either.
That President Obama is still working on the economy is evident. What is becoming more evident is that the American people mistakenly thought he was going to create jobs and stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, his goal to ‘remake America’ is a longer term project.
He must first dismantle our free-market economy which necessitates unemployment going higher, which necessitates unemployment compensation going longer, which creates a growing population (not counting millions of undocumented Democrats from Mexico) more dependent on the government. That, coupled with more industries coming under the control of the federal government and viola, we’ll be just as broke and socialist a nation as any one in Europe. Under Obama, the days of unemployment under 5 percent are over and gone. The new norm will be somewhere between 10-15 percent. And if he can do it in one term, all the better. To him, that would be Mission Accomplished.
How long does it take before hearing what you want to hear takes a back seat to seeing the results that you want to see?
In fact, it worked for Russia and Argentina. In fact, to keep ‘bailouts’ on the table for countries that are currently set up to spend more than they take in is, I’ll use a technical word here, crazy. It is a waste of everyone else’s money and does not solve the problem.
Socialist states must restructure. The post WWII boom days are over. The demographics are nothing like they were 50 years ago. And ‘reform’ means ‘taking away.’
The cure means a new economic model for Europe. The lesson for the United States is that transforming America into the image of Europe is not only the absolute wrong direction for our country, but is antithetical to President Obama’s responsibility of being the steward of the country and the Constitution.
meteeffeniron: Good evening!
Happy New Year!
Health, luck and love!
Ross: If unions go away, no one suffers. If small businesses go away, everyone suffers.
Ann Coulter: The Nazi war machine couldn't break the British, but the modern welfare state has.
Newt Gingrich: “We are going to have the candidate of food stamps, the finest food stamp president in American history, in Barack Obama, and we are going to have a candidate of [...]
Neal Boortz: In the beginning there was a void. The void moveth to Washington whereupon it surroundeth itself with a sphincter muscle.
